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US Department of Energy scientists have engineered a spray-on nanocrystal window coating that uses electricity to control how much heat and light passes through it. The "smart glass" coating, which can be controlled to respond to changing weather conditions, could represent a major leap in energy efficiency technology for buildings.
The technology, described in Nature, makes use of conductive......read more

Roman Gaus, CEO of UrbanFarmers, on the farming technique that may revolutionize our food system

The city farming movement conjures images of growers covered in soil, planting and picking in community or rooftop garden plots. But perhaps the most promising technique for urban agriculture involves pumps and pipes in squeaky clean labs. It's called aquaponics, and it may revolutionize the way we eat. In a piece for The Atlantic Cities, UrbanFarmers CEO Roman Gaus describes how it......read more

Italian company uses a revolutionary process to produce paper from stone

There are plenty of paper notebook offerings that make use of recycled materials or paper from sustainably-harvested trees. But Milan-based company Ogami takes eco-minded print materials to another level with a collection of notebooks that bypass trees altogether.
Called Repap (yes, smartypants, that's paper spelled backwards), the Ogami-innovated paper makes use stone instead of wood. The......read more

Blu's latest amazing wall animation tracks the evolution of life on Earth.

“Big Bang Big Boom," the latest of Blu's mindblowingly creative wall animations, has the internet on fire for its phenomenal stop motion depiction of the history of the world. An elaborate combination of graffiti, installation and animation, the work follows the evolution of life of earth, from beginning to end. ...read more

Jeremy Rifkind on the evolution of empathy—and how it could save the earth.

The central thesis of 'The Empathic Civilization,' the bestseller by political adviser and renewable energy proponent Jeremy Rifkind, is that people's innate capacity for empathy will ensure that we make the shift from carbon based energy and stop climate change. In this short animation produced by the RSA, the talented folks at Cognitive Media brilliantly bring Rifkind's......read more

Indian corporate giant The Tata Group and MIT are collaborating on new research that produces energy from water. The technology, developed by MIT scientist and SunCatalytix founder Daniel Nocera, is founded on a basic scientific priniciple: sunlight + water = fuel.
Nocera's process essentially mimics photosynthesis by using sunlight to split hydrogen from water. It is said that it can generate......read more

Government hopes to spur a green revolution by pouring cash into clean industry.

South Korea is taking bold steps to become a global green leader. Under the country's national “green growth” plans, released last year, the government has pledged $97 billion worth of funding for environment-related industries, and another $36 billion toward renewable energy. The planned influx of cash is aimed to help the country achieve lofty environmental goals by 2020, including a......read more

The switch to efficient lighting will have a significant impact on emissions – and climate change.

Light bulbs have been around since the days of Thomas Edison, but they're not the same old bulbs anymore. Technology is improving rapidly, and with that progress comes new levels of efficiency and sustainability. In his new book 'Plan B 4.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization,' author Lester Brown explains that one of the easiest and quickest ways that we can reduce electricity use......read more

Aside from the Internet, no single invention might be as important to globalization as the shipping container. No joke. Before that advent of standardized containers in the 1950's, trans-oceanic shipping was hugely labor intensive and slow, because every ship and air shipment presented a brand new challenge. By contrast, standard shipping containers they allow cargo to be moved in massive......read more